Always Been Black
by Legend96
Summary: Since the day the whitecoats took his vision from him, Iggy has seen nothing but black. But can a rooftop meeting with a certain sister of Max give Iggy back his birtright? Oneshot, rated K for one word and slight angst.


**Disclamer: I do not own Maximum Ride or anything remotely related to Maximum Ride besides my copies of the books. (And on Monday, I will have my own copy of Fang! ;D )**

All I ever saw was black.

Ever. I never saw pink, never saw orange, never saw yellow. Just black. Nothing bright at all. Except white, but I had to be snowblind to see white.

It sucked. Majorly, because I really had to know what my family members looked liked. I needed to know what the Gasman looked like, what his sister Angel looked like, what Nudge looked like so I could put a face with that never ending voice, what Max looked like, hell, even what Fang looked like.

I had to be able to _see_. And when you can't see, you can't do anything very often.

The Erasers and the Whitecoats are right. I am a liability, despite what my family says. Despite what Max, what Fang, what Gazzy, what Nudge, what Angel say, I'm something that just slows them down. And I hide it behind mask of deviousness, of bomb making. It is fun, but sometimes, I need the quiet so I can figure out where everything is, navigate my way around everything.

That all changed when I met Ella Martinez.

She said I was amazing, being able to navigate around the world and not get lost, still not be able to see anything unless I was snowblind, she said she thought I was amazing. Period. It shocked me that ngiht, shocked e so badly I was pretty sure I was blushing red. Whatever red looked like. All I knew was white and black.

One night I was sitting on the roof, laying back, wishing I could see those bright specks of whatever color they were, lighting up my world. But no, I knew that wasn't going to happen. The onyl reason I knew blue was because of the cow shocking sticks they had at the school. And even that was fading, slipping down into the darkest pits of my memory.

Ella climbed up that one night, and sat next to me. I knew it was her, because she breathes differenly from the Flock. "How'd you get up here?" I had asked. I could feel her smile. "I could ask the same of you, but you have wings. I've lived here all my life, Iggy. I know how to find myself on my roof," she answered.

I felt her grab my hand, give it a wuick squeeze, and let it go. she had grown this past year I had known her. Yeah, she had been twelve, and yeah, she had been a tiny sixth grader. But she had turned thirteen three weeks ago, and she had been loving every minute of being a teenager. Dr. Martinez though, she really wanted Ella to stop rubbing it in.

She said it made her feel old.

Angel being six made me, Max, and Fang feel old.

But anyway, Ella had turned into someone who become very... Likable. From what Gazzy told me, she was pretty. Warm, brown eyes, chocolately brown hair, and slightly tan skin.

I wanted to be able to see so much then. I craved it.

But I knew that was going to happen. I knew it wasn't going to happen, because if it did, the world would surely end. I frowned, and Ella aked what was wrong. I had answered ntohing, that everything was great. I had lied. I had felt a pressure on my cheek, and then more warmth spread over them.

Ella laughed, flat out laughed. "You need to learn to control your blush," she had said, still chortling. My blind eyes had narrowed and were pointed in her general direction. "It would be fine if you stopped embarrassing me!" I had retorted. She went stiff after that, and that was when I realized just how close she had been when I turned my head. I swallowed at the same time she did. I swear I could _feel_ her eyes looking down, going to my lips.

I placed hand over hers, and gave it a squeeze. Her lips, soft, warm, they tasted like strawberries and chocolate, made me gasp in shcok. I felt my eyes close, not that it made much of a difference. When she pulled back, it hurt to open my eyes.

I didn't know why at the time, but it did.

"Iggy? Are you okay?" Ella had asked, putting her hands on either side of my face. I shook my head. "It hurts to open my eyes," I said. She placed one finger on my eyelids, one for each, and slowly lifted them. I forced them back shut when something penetrated through my lashes.

"C'mon, Igs, stop being a wimp!" she said.

My eyes snapped opent hen. "No one calls me a wimp!" I had shouted. But then it hit me. I could see a face. A very pretty face. One that made me gasp in shock again. I clinked, making sure this lovely face wouldn't disappear. "Iggy?" The lips ont he face moved, forming my name. It was Ella's face. "Are you okay?"

I felt the smile on my lips grow so wide, it made Ella's brown eyes widen. "I... I can see you!" I shouted, standing up and pulling her with me. Her jaw fell open, and I gently closed it. "W-What?!" she screeched. "I can see!" I shouted. My face liften towards the sky. It was dark, dark blue, and I only remembered that from the slipping memory, with beight specks of what seemed like a close resemblance to white. I could see stars.

Ella's lips spread as a wide as mine. "You can see!" she said, throwing her arms around my neck. I hugged her close. "This is... This is a miracle!" she whispered. I nodded. "Should we go tell the others, and introduce me to pink and orange and yellow and green?" I asked, rejoicing.

She smakced my arm. "Stop being a smart donkey!" she coutnered, slipping off down a big white, fence thing that had multiple squares on it. It was covred in a vine, a cool color that calmed my senses, and a warm color that fired me up. Such a condriction. I just opened my wins a little and made ito the ground before her, and helped her down the rest of the way.

When we walked inside, Max was at the table, and I knew it was Max because she was talking a to a sweet little girl, who sounded like Angel. Fang (I knew it was Fang, no one else was that silent) was sitting across from Max and Angel, and Nudge (talker) and Gazzy (the smell) were sitting in the living room with Total and Dr. Martinez.

Max looked up when we walked in, and I met her eyes directly. "Iggy, did I ever mention how freaky you get when you can meet my eyes perfectly?" she asked, holding Angel's hand. Angel, on the other hand, was laughing on the inside, I could just tell.

I looked over at angel, looking off to the side of her head, and asked mentally, i_Should I keep up the Blind Guy act, or tell her straight out?_/i

A second later, a voice in my head answered, i_Surpirse her. It'll be fun!_/iSometimes it scared me how much Angel could be a little devil. Other times it made me wish she was my little sister instead of the Gasman's. So i looked past Max's head, and said softly, "Oh, I was looking directly at you? Sorry for scaring you!" And then I met her eyes again.

"Except I can acvtually meet your eyes now without having to worry were you are."

Everyones topped moving. Nudge in the living room shut up,Gazzy stopped playing with wires, Total even stopped talking. Dr. Martinez was staring at me, open mouthed. Max's eyes went wide, and her jaw fell open too. Angel was the only one grinning, besides Ella.

Fang walked over to me, and wagged a hand in front of my eyes. I slapped it away, jumping back. "Hey! I'm not blind anymore, ya know?!" I shouted. The corner of his mouth quirked upward, Max let out a sqeaula nd nearly tackled me, Nudge started jabbernig about how epic this was, Gazzy was laughing evilly (he was pretty sure we'd get more bombs done at a faster pase, and we sure as heck would), Total was wagging his tail excitedly, and Ella kept holding my hand.

Dr. Martinez was s till sitting ont he couch, chuckling at everyone's reactions.

Something told me she had something to do with my eyesight suddenly returning.

Note to Self: Remember to thank her and compliment her on her acting skills.

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**A/N: For those of you who actually took the time to read this, thank you! It means a lot to me that you would pick this over anything else. XD I know I'm new, but I really do appreciate more experienced authors giving me tips. Just don't spring it all on me all at once, because it might (*coughwillcough*) be ignored. ^_^' Please excuse any typos I missed while ditting, any bad grammer or whatever. It's nearly one in the morning and the inspiration struck about thirty minutes ago. And please, I don't want any flames. Because if you flame me, I am a person to flame you back and not feel ashamed what so stinkin ever. If you didn't like the story, sorry, but keep mloving on. I really hate resorting to mean remarks. So go ahead! :D Click that button that says reveiw and tell me how I did for the first published story on ! :D**


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